User blog:Ry1031/Next Class Season 3 Review
Being 23 years old, and out of high school for 6 years, I haven't really liked the newer seasons of Degrassi as much as a used to, as they are aimed at the younger age demographic that I am no longer a part of, and have a harder time relating to. This being said, I LOVED this season. It is definitely the strongest they've had so far in a while, and defintely the best of the Next Class tagline. I've taken some time to review plot lines, characters, ships, and all of the nonsense that went on this season, I hope you enjoy. Characters: Bazz: '''I have really never been a Baaz fan, as I'm sure most of us aren't, but I was very happy to finally see him interacting with Goldi. The interaction made me wonder what type of parents the Nahir's have. In the Bhandari family, Sav and Alli had very traditional parents, are the Nahir's as tradional, or more lax? Bazz seems to be more lax in his apporach to his religion, and encourages Goldi to be as well. Other than his home life, I was actually very taken aback by the comments he made to Hunter about how he was "lucky". While I agree that Hunter is most definitely privilaged, I don't understand where Baaz's outburst came from, as he's never been shown to resent Hunter for those reasons. Maybe it will come up again in season 4 as his own storyline. '''Esme: Esme really pushed my buttons this reason. I used to be interested in her character, and the directions they planned to take with it, but this season she just left a sour taste in my mouth. Aside from helping to get Maya medical attention in episode 10, I saw no appeal to the character, and actually found myself getting irritated whenever she was shown on screen, before she even had the chance to speak. Frankie: I honestly feel like Frankie was probably the most realistic in her portrayal the a 16 year old girl this season. She somewhat reminds me of one of my younger sisters, and it just helps me enjoy the character a little bit more. I will say however that her relationship with Jonah is annoying and at this point very tired, and I am happy to see that it might finally be over. However, on the friend front, she seemed to be a little bit better this season. She was there for Shay and Lola respectively and even doused herself in red paint to prove a point with Shay and some other girls. While I agree that Frankie is somewhat immature, I also believe that most of the girls I knew at that age, were not much different. Goldi: '''I'm SOOOO happy that Goldi finally got her own plot! It shocked me when she decided to take off her hijab, and broke my heart when she rushed to the bathroom in tears to put it back on because she felt she was betraying her faith. In my opinion, Goldi shares a lot of similarities with Becky Baker. She's a beatutiful girl, who's deeply commited to her faith, as well as being a total go-getter, participating in everything she can. She's very kind to everyone and struggles with her own beliefs when someone challanges them, saying that they are not as inclusive as she herself is. I was very interested in the interaction between her and Rasha about their believes, and enjoyed the frienedship between her and Zoe, which again, in my opintion, is remenicent of the wonderful Becky-Imogen frinedship. Bottom line: I love this character and I'm thrilled she got the screen time she deserved. ''Grace'':' I felt so damn bad for Grace this season. She was constantly blown off by Maya and was never given a reason, she worked on a play that was constatnly changing, she found out she needed a lung transplant, it was just not her year. I'm glad she's choosing the get the transplant, and keep her life going. '''Hunter: '''Okay, Hunter was adorable this season, and I'm not talking about the hair. He was clearly in a better head space than previous seasons, and is learning to control his temper and be kinder to those around him. He's even seemed to mature as a person, and it was made apparent in one of the most immauture situations. The dick measuring competition. When Baaz snapped at Hunter out of the blue, instead of blowing up at him, Hunter pulled Yael aside and asked her to give Baaz the win, and boost his ego. I will however say that, the whole boner situation with Lola was blown completely out of proportion, and going out of his way to try and get rid of Lola was a very childish thing to do. But all in all, Hunter has defintely gotten better. '''Jonah:' I'm really not a Jonah fan, and never have been. He's not a bad guy, just increadibly dull. I'm glad he was there for Grace this season, but other than that, his presence on the show, just as it has been since season 13, has been completely underwhelming. If I had one prediction for him, it'd be that the reason he won't have sex with Frankie is because he has some sort of disease from drug use. More than likely AIDs or Hep B/C, as neither of these topics have been adressed since Dwayne in Degrassi High, and are still very relevant today. Lola: Alright, we all knew it was coming, but before I get to the bulk of her plot, I'd like to say that Lola was completely in the wrong about posting a photo of her and Tiny. But I do agree with her and Miles that you can't have a "safe space" for everyone, because everyone is different. Now I'll tackle the abortion, All in all, I have to say the story line was well done. I liked that Degrassi finally covered abortion without the negative feel it had with both Erica and Manny. The only things about it I would have changed would be that we would have seen more of her decision making process, and that Miles would have actually had a reaction to it when finding out. I'm glad that it was adresesed by him, and he was supportive of her and her decision, but I feel like that would have effected him more than it did because of how emotional he can get. I like that Lola was brave enough to talk about her decision, and put it out there for other girls to hear. I was never a Lola fan before this season, but I definitely have a lot more respect for her character now. Maya: '''Maya Matlin breaking my heart! Her depression stroyline from 12 on has finally come to a boiling point. I have to say, it really did break my heart see her finally break after 5 seasons. She is so hollow on the inside now that she shows almost no emotion in her face or voice, and I have to commend Liv Scriven on the wonderful preformance. I also noted that just like with Cam, everybody saw the signs '''after the fact. But as the viewers, we felt it the entire time. Somebody on here once said that Maya's story was going to be an antithesis to Cams, which I both adore and pain over. The writers are doing a wonderful just with this very long plot for her. Here's hoping that she makes it out of this in one piece with her frineds and family by her side to support her. Miles: Miles David Hollingsworth, what have you done!? I love Miles, I really do, but I don't condone the cheating. While I understand how hard it is to essentially stay faithful to "a corpse" as he put it, but Miles basically had an actual meaningful connection and relationship with Lola. Even though I hate Tristan, I don't like the cheating. With that in mind, I felt for Miles this season. I've always liked him, but he actually touched a bit of my heart this time. The poor kid was glued to a hospital chair, waiting for Tristan to wake up after already spending the entire summer by his side, being critisized for his emotions, helped out with a play that was constantly changing due to his own feelings, connected with somebody else who was feeling low, and had conflicting emotions for both people. And again, while I did hate the cheating, I did enjoy Miles and Lola's connection. I've been in a situation similar to that before, and the connection you share with someone while both of you are working through a hard time, is something way deeper than anyone could understand from the surface. He did very well this season with all that was thrown his way, and Eric did a bang-up-job portraying his emotional roller coaster. Shay: First of all, I love Shay. And I am so glad she was able to stand up for herself not once, but multiple times this season. She confronted Lola about the picture, she decided to be the bigger person when it came to Esme's taunting and just decide to laugh at the things she said, she ran with paint all over her legs and shorts to make a point about how mensturation is a normal, healthy thing, and worked out every issue she and Tiny had on a mature level. She had very little drama that she couldn't handle this season and she is without a doubt one of the best characters featured right now. Tiny: Shout out to Tiny for being the realest guy on the show. Hands down a true gentleman, and grade A friend and boyfriend. Seriously, how many teenage boys do you know that with buy pads and tampons for their girlfriends, be okay with being bled on, cheering a girl on when everybody else is yelling "what's on her legs?", always telling Shay how proud he is of her, and even being kind to Lola and trying to raise her self-esteem, while still being completely loyal to his girlfriend? Because he's the only one I'm aware of that behaves like a man, not a boy. Tiny's a gem, and he totally gives hope to all girls that good guys do exist. Vijay: '''Vijay really didn't get his own plot aside from calling Zoe out. While I think he can be overly dramatic at times I don't hate him. I do enjoy the character, and wish they'd give him his own plot. '''Winston: Here's another one with virtually not plot this season. I do enjoy his frinedship with Zoe though. Yael: While I don't particularly like Yael, and think her getting as upset as she did about a boner, rather than him trying to hide it, I really loved her friendship with Lola. They're complete opposites in every way, but they're friendship was just so lovely. She was very supportive of Lola, and even helped her get her message about abortion out. I'm hoping to see more of them together. Zig: Zig still sucks. I don't like Esme, but for a guy who's supposed to be her boyfriend to say the things he said about her. Not cool. I will say I did begin to feel bad fro him when he was in the waiting room in the hospital feeling guilty for telling Maya to leave him alone, the same way he thought that he killed Cam. Again, those parallels hard at work. But yeah, I don't care for Zig, and I'm glad he wasn't part of a major plot this season. Zoe: For those of you who have seen my comments about Zoe, you know how much I actually dislike her character. That being said, I think most of you would be pleasently surpised to here what I have to say about her character this season...I loved her. I really did. She was generally very polite and mature when faced with situations she wasn't pleased with. She was the voice of reason for Miles, and was a wonderful student council president from the looks of it. She didn't do a single thing this season out of spite or malice. While I think she should have just listened to her mother about bringing Rasha to the wedding, I think her going ahead with the invite was done out of a hope for her mothers approval, not out of defiance. Even so, it's a cause I can get behind. I'm happy to see her happy, and in a good place with her relationships. This was the maturity and grace I've been waiting for since her character was introduced. Newbies: Rasha: Over all, I really enjoyed Rasha. I thought it was good to have a character like her to represent refugees. I loved how sweet of a person she was, as well as how tough she was to fight for herself to be allowed to play a character in a play regardless of the gender. I think her relationship with Zoe was adorable and how into everything she was. Hopfully we get to see more of her before she graduates. Saad: I'm really not sure how I feel about him honestly. On one hand I found him to be very interesting, but on the other, I agree that he probably wasn't the best person for Maya to being hanging out with in her mental state. I want to see more of him, and hear him talk about his life in Syria. Ships: Shiny: Screw alphabetical order, Shiny comes first. We were all so excited to see these to get together, and now that it's finally happened, they were totally worth the wait. They're adorable, supportive of each other, proud to be with each other, handle their disputes in a mature manner, and are just over all a very solid couple, even for high school kids. If these two aren' endgame, then I'll never forgive the writers. Jankie: I don't like this ship, and I'm glad it's over. They were never really well suited fro one another and their relationship was always very annoying, and at this point, a very tired stroyline for both of them. I ship Jonah with no one, due to how dull he is, Triles: I'm happy that they're both happy. But at the same time, this is a very toxic ship, and I was hoping this season would be the end of it.I've never liked the way Tristan treated Miled like property, and I think it's dumb that the writers use Triles as Tristan's only plot for the past few seasons. Miles cheating wasn;t okay, but it also isn't fair to expect a 17 year old to stay commited to somebody in a coma for that long. It's a high school relationship, and a sucky one at that. Maybe next season it will finally end. Zesme: Oh I hate this. They're both such rude and selfish people. At least they're not ruining anyone elses lives. That's about the only semi-positive thing I can think of. Zasha: I am about this ship. That's it. I'm just very happy that they're both so well suited for each other and as supportive and understanding as they are towards each other. Rasha is very interesting and Zoe is finally showing her best side. Mola: Honestly, I don't really care if anyone wants to call this a relationship, because it 100% was one. These two were very sweet together. I enjoyed every little bit of this. The level of respect for each other and each others feelings was more mature than most ships on this show almost ever are. I didn't like the cheating, but I think these two would have been great if Miles weren't still with Tristan. Mola > Triles any day. Predictions for future seasons: Jonah will admit to having HIV/AIDS or Hep B/C. Maya, Tristan, and grace will be held back due to missing so much time their senior year. Triles will finally split up, but remain close friends. While Tiny is graduating, he and Shay will remain together and we will see Tiny past season 4 when he is visiting Shay back home, like Eli did with Clare. Frankie will find out that Lola aborted her brothers baby, and cause some tension between the two of them. Maya will spend time in a psycheatric hospital. The next pregnancy stroyline will end in the couple choosing to parent. Saad will continue to try and be friends with Maya, only to be shut out and deemed a 'bad influence'. Miles won't date another boy after Tristan. Do you agree with any or all of this? Leave your thoughts below. Thank you for reading! Category:Blog posts